Adam's Apples

Buds swell on a branch of an apple tree at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, earlier today.  ¶  The promise of another harvest begins.

Long have I marveled at the wonderful keeping qualities of GoldRush , a modern variety developed by the PRI Co-op . Packed well, GoldRush keeps in my ordinary refrigerator, peaking in April and still quite tasty in June . So today, six months out, let's sample the fall 2017 harvest. And while we are at it, the 2016 harvest too.

They're available now. But are they any good? Lady Alice made her New England debut in the spring of 2010, leaving a very favorable impression. I awarded her two stars ("worth seeking") for great texture and rich and unusual flavors. That this variety needed to sit until March or April to reach her peak was a feature, not a bug; having something this good to bite at that time of year was a welcome treat amid the tired supermarket standards. Starting in 2011, reports began to trickle in here of this variety for sale in February. Or, I should perhaps say, complaints: blandness, bitterness, a "chemical taste," and general dissatisfaction.

Storm clouds gather behind nascent apples earlier today at Nagog Hill Farm in Littleton.

As a particularly leonine March prepares to make its traditionally agnine exit, the apple trees are laying their plans to blossom and fruit. Before there are apples, there are buds.

It is winter in Massachusetts, where I live. Since the start of the year only one day in five has cracked the freezing point of water. We've got snow in the forecast, and the snow will fall on the snows of older storms. Before there are apples, there are buds.

What apples do you like for late winter and early spring? I usually lean heavily on Macouns for as long as they last, but the crop was small this year. Empire can be reliable and I often find myself turning to them in April, May, and June. But this winter I ate a lot of three varieties that previously were only available briefly. They are Opal , a new European variety that has just one North American grower The uneven, but superb when at best, Lady Alice Elusive  Pacific Rose

Reports of disappointing examples of the Lady Alice apple began to trickle in mid February. This new variety was really a treat last year, crisp with unusual flavors, and for sale in March. One reader this year, writing February 13, called Alice bland. Another checked in with accounts of Alices that were bitter .

Empire March is depressingly far from last October's harvest or July's early apples, but there are consolations. Compared to February, I found some prime Empires and Piñatas. No sign of lovely Lady Alice here this year, alas. But March is also where I empty out the bottom drawer of my refrigerator and have my last taste of fall. As previously related, for instance, I had my last Winter Banana on March 19. This spring cleaning invariably exhumes a few surprises, one or two apples I thought I was finished with.

At the start of this month I called March the bleakest in the apple year, so far from the harvest and all the keepers gone. But events proved me wrong. Lady Alice,  available here for the first time, is  only  sold in March. Blushing Golden Macoun persisted in the supermarkets. Piñata returned. My last Blushing Golden, belatedly discovered and awakened from its suspended animation in my refrigerator, proved sound and sweet. Every year is different and every day brings something new.

Here in North America, unless you have some redoubtable Arkansas Blacks stashed away, March is the bleakest time of the apple year. It's been five months since the harvest, and reenforcement won't arrive from the Southern hemisphere until April. The first local apple is still a season away, leaving most of us with the basic industrial apples from which to choose. Fortunately those are still sound and sweet. My personal five favorites are after the break. Jazz Many similar apples compete at the market this time of year, very sweet, crisp, and dense. Jazz may be the best of this lot for its delicate floral-and-orange-juice flavors. Empire Crisp, vinous, and reasonably well balanced, Empire is most like the classical North-east varieties. Now that Macouns are ending, I'll probably eat a lot...